Verizon Sues FCC over Net Neutrality Regulations

Verizon has filed a lawsuit against the FCC, claiming that its new net neutrality rules give the FCC authority beyond what's provided to it by Congress.

Verizon Communications is suing
the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, challenging the body's new
rules regarding the contentious issue of net neutrality. The appeal was filed
Jan. 20 with the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit.

"Today's filing is the result of a careful review of
the FCC's order. We are deeply concerned by the FCC's assertion of broad
authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the Internet
itself," Michael Glover, Verizon senior vice president and deputy general
counsel, said in a Jan. 20 statement. "We
believe this assertion of authority goes well beyond any authority provided by
Congress, and creates uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators,
investors and consumers."

TheFCC
voted to adopt net neutrality regulations Dec. 21, though even the
commissioners behind the idea were not entirely pleased with the rules as they
stood. Following the vote, there were reports that Verizon was considering
filing a suit in protest, though some found the ruling unsatisfactory and
"watered down" specifically because they appeared to be written so as to please
Verizon, which had been incredibly vocal about its position.

Aparna Sridhar, policy counsel at the media reform group
Free Press, described the rules as being written to "placate" Verizon, which
will "settle for nothing less than total deregulation and a toothless FCC in
the relentless pursuit of profit," according to the IDG
News Service.
Analyst Roger Kay, with Endpoint
Technology Associates, told eWEEK that,
given that Verizon is in the business of billing, it makes sense that the company is reacting in
this manner. He described the carrier, however, as "being a spoiled
child, stamping its foot and saying that any regulation is too much."

Expected to go into effect in early 2011, the rules give the
federal government the authority to regulate Internet traffic through the FCC
and address three broad issues: transparency, blocking and discrimination.
"The rules require all broadband providers to publicly
disclose network management practices, restrict broadband providers from
blocking Internet content and applications, and bar fixed broadband providers
from engaging in unreasonable discrimination in transmitting lawful network
traffic," the FCC said a Dec. 21 statement.
The rules also discourage cable and phone companies from
offering faster service to customers, such as Internet providers, that are
willing to pay extra. Paying for priority service, said the FCC, goes against
its rule of no unreasonable discrimination.
"A commercial arrangement between a broadband provider and a
third party to directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other
traffic in
the connection to a subscriber of the broadband provider (i.e., "pay
for
priority") would raise significant cause for concern," the FCC said in
its statement. First, because granting priority to some would depart
from historic and current practices, as well as go against the spirit
of the Internet, and second because this departure from longstanding
norms could harm innovation and investment in and on the Internet.
Verizon, in the January statement following its appeal, said
it would do just the opposite.
"Verizon has long been committed to preserving an open
Internet and meeting the needs of our customers," said Glover. "We have worked
extensively with all players in the Internet and communications space to shape
policies that ensure an open Internet and encourage investment, innovation and
collaboration with content providers and others to meet the needs of
consumers."
As they currently stand, the rules, said EndPoint
Technology's Kay, are "very complicated" and "very imperfect." Ideally, he
said, "you want to guarantee that everyone gets good service, and no one gets
penalized for paying for even better service. But we're not yet there with this
law."

Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.